Chapter 31

Sarah Chen didn't look like Ivy expected. Younger, for one thing, maybe thirty, with a canvas bag over one shoulder and the kind of patient, watchful calm that seemed more dangerous than any aggression could have been.

"Mr. Voss." She offered a hand at the gate, and Kade shook it, easy and controlled, nothing in his face betraying the tension Ivy could feel radiating off him even from ten feet back. "Thank you for seeing me. I know it's unusual, showing up like this."

"You said land use. My assistant mentioned county permits." Kade's voice was smooth, unbothered, a tone Ivy hadn't heard from him since the council hearing. "I'm happy to answer questions, though I confess I'm curious why a reporter drove two hours out for what sounds like a fairly dry municipal story."

"Dry stories sometimes turn into interesting ones." Sarah's eyes moved past him, briefly, taking in the house, the grounds, cataloging something Ivy couldn't guess at. "I've been tracking a pattern of land acquisitions in this county for about a year. Shell companies, mostly, buying up parcels that border your family's property. Whoever's behind it has been very careful. Almost professionally careful."

"Land is a good investment," Kade said. "I imagine several parties find this county attractive."

"Sure." Sarah pulled a small notebook from her bag, not writing yet, just holding it like a prop she was comfortable with. "There's also been an unusual pattern of late-night hospital transfers from this address over the past year. And two separate reports of large animal sightings near your property line, neither of which matches any species native to this region. I'm not accusing you of anything, Mr. Voss. I'm just a reporter who's learned that patterns like this usually mean something interesting, even if it takes a while to figure out what."

Ivy's heart pounded. Beside her, Rhys stood very still, the same careful stillness Kade wore whenever he was working hard to seem unbothered.

"I run a private security operation alongside my family's other holdings," Kade said. "We take our privacy seriously, and we take intrusions on our land seriously enough to warrant medical attention on occasion. As for wildlife — this county borders a lot of undeveloped forest. Strange sightings aren't exactly rare."

"They're rare when the sightings all describe the same specific silhouette," Sarah said, mild, almost gentle. "Large. Upright at times, according to two separate witnesses who don't know each other and have no reason to coordinate a story."

The silence stretched a beat too long.

"Ms. Chen," Ivy said, stepping forward before she'd fully decided to, "what exactly are you hoping to find here today?"

Sarah's attention shifted to her, sharp and curious. "You're Ivy. I read about you, actually — there's a birth announcement filed with the county, unusually detailed for a private family. I'm hoping, honestly, to find a real story. Something worth the year I've spent on it. Whether that story is shell companies and land fraud, or something stranger, I'll follow whatever the evidence actually shows me. I'm not interested in printing wild theories. I'm interested in the truth, whatever shape it turns out to have."

"That's an admirable principle," Kade said. "It's also not going to get you access to my family's private business today."

"I didn't expect it to." Sarah closed her notebook, unbothered by the refusal in a way that made Ivy more nervous, not less. "I'll keep digging, Mr. Voss. That's the job. I'd rather do it with your cooperation than without it, but I'll do it either way."

She turned to leave, then paused, glancing back with something sharper in her expression than the polite calm she'd worn through the whole conversation.

"One more thing," she said. "There's a name that keeps coming up in county records tied to your property. A shell company called Ashgrove Holdings, registered eight months ago, buying parcels along your eastern border. I couldn't find anything about who's actually behind it. That's unusual, even for careful people." She held Kade's gaze a beat too long. "Ashgrove's an odd name for a shell company. Almost sounds like it means something."

She walked back to her car without waiting for an answer, and Ivy stood frozen at the gate, watching her go, feeling every careful lie they'd told in the last ten minutes come apart at the seams with four simple words.

Ashgrove's an odd name.

"She knows," Ivy said quietly, once the car had pulled away. "Not everything. But she's closer than we thought."

Kade's jaw was tight, eyes still fixed on the empty road. "Whoever registered that shell company under the Ashgrove name made a mistake nobody's going to be able to walk back easily."